September 17, 2024

Since there hasn’t been any mind-blowing important/traumatic events in the past 24 hours on the national level, I thought I’d bring things a bit more local to my Pennsylvanian friends and family.

Back in the Saddle Again: The state House is due to be officially back in Democratic hands after a special election happening today in Philadelphia. Andre Carroll is replacing former Representative Stephen Kinsey, while Keith Harris is taking the seat of former Representative Donna Bullock. Both Bullock and Kinsey resigned in mid-July. While theoretically, these are both elections in which anyone could win, not only are these considered pretty safe blue-team seats, neither Carroll nor Harris are facing any opponents. After today, the state House will once again have a 102-101 Democratic majority. LINK

The Fly in the Ointment: While the above story means that the Democrats have the literal slimmest of majorities in the House, plus a Democratic governor in Josh Shapiro, they don’t have a trifecta, as the state Senate is dominated 28-22 by Republicans. Due to that, a number of attempts at correcting some obvious issues with voting in Pennsylvania have gone nowhere in recent years. I mentioned at the beginning of the month that the Commonwealth Court had ruled that it was against the state constitution to reject voters’ ballots if they had the wrong date written on the outside of the envelope. As expected, that ruling was appealed, and the state Supreme Court has dismissed the case on procedural grounds, effectively leaving the rule in place. Secretary of State Al Schmidt (interestingly enough, a Republican, who was appointed by Democrat Shapiro) has stepped up, ordering that the current year be pre-printed on envelopes, so all voters need to do is get the month and date right. The other issue, though, is that the Keystone State still has a rule that mail-in ballots cannot be processed until 7:00 AM on Election Day itself. So no matter how early you send in your ballot, it won’t get looked at until November 5, which makes the day itself that much more chaotic for poll workers. Numerous attempts to change this law have been shot down by state Senate Republicans. LINK

Start Your Engines: Speaking of the state Supreme Court, they made another ruling yesterday related to the upcoming Presidential election. Independent candidate Cornel West’s attempt to get on the ballot in November has been struck down; it seems that the proper paperwork hadn’t been submitted in time for 14 of West’s 19 presidential electors. With that decision in place, Secretary of State Schmidt certified the final slate of candidates for counties to prepare printing the ballots, which will feature four candidates for President:

• Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrat
• Chase Oliver, Libertarian
• Jill Stein, Green
• Former President Donald Trump, Republican

County election officials say they will need time to test, print, and mail the ballots, but should be going out sometime within the next few weeks. The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is October 29. LINK